Leyte Gulf, Yamato Sunk, Reload Failure

[WernherVonTrapp]

Well, I finally had one of my best patrols ever. I made it to the battle of Leyte Gulf and intercepted Kurita's Center Force about 88nm W of the San Bernardino Strait. I initially overshot my approach but was able to sink a Kongo with my 4 remaining aft tubes. I went deep, corrected my angle of approach and made it to PD just in time to see the big fat Yamato just over 2000yds ahead of my port bow. I fired all 6 forward tubes and all 6 hit their mark, though slightly behind my aiming points. They all struck in a spread from starboard midship, right on back to the tip of her fantail.

It wasn't long before she was dead in the water. The DDs didn't conduct much of a search for me and despite a few pings here and there, never located me before heading off and leaving the Y to her own devices. I had already accumulated over 31k merchant tons on a foraging assignment at Convoy College. Now, I just sunk a Kongo and had a once in a lifetime opportunity to sink an unguarded Y. After firing all 6 tubes, I had only 4 torps left to my name. By the time I returned to PD, 2 more had been loaded. I fired these more toward her bow aiming for the A & B turrets. Both hit home with resulting secondaries and, though her list became more pronounced, it wasn't enough to sink her. I dove to 250' while the last 2 torps were loading and headed my boat for a shot at her port side. Upon completing the reload, I surfaced to a beautiful 90° angle at just over 1000yds. I aimed amidship and at the aft turrets. Both hit with another large secondary. She didn't go down right away and I wasn't sure if she would at all.

I waited in anxious anticipation and within a matter of minutes, I could hear several internal explosions reverberating through the water. These continued for several more minutes until the explosions made it to the outer superstructure. A few moments later, the lifeboats appeared and she was gone. I surfaced the boat and had no radar contacts at all. I began to head toward a downed flier in a rescue attempt and, that's when it happened.

My first mate broke radio silence, entered the inner sanctum, breached all levels of security clearance and, entered the man cave. In a blink of an eye, I went from intense focus during a combat scenario to a high stress level reminder about a promised shopping excursion. I glanced at the PC screen, glanced at my first mate, glanced back at the PC screen, the sweat began to bead down along the contours of my face. I felt the flush begin to flood through my veins. Duty was calling on two separate fronts. I quietly pondered my options, "which enemy do I engage?" I began to grit my teeth at the indecisiveness. The pressure began to build like a pressure cooker filled with nitroglycerine. Steam began to erupt from my ears and I heard a loud whistle begin to blow!
Dohhhhhhhh, all right honey. Just, let me shut down the game before we go, OK?

That's when things began to get hazy. With her perched over me like a vulture over a rotting carcass, I shut down the game as a moment of reprieve gripped me upon seeing my total tonnage over 101,000 tons. Then, upon returning from my assignment in the shopping zone, I tried to boot up my saved game, all 3 of them. The dreaded, "Silent Hunter IV Has Failed To Load" message echoed through my mind like some twisted water torture scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
(cry of anguish) Ohhhh, the horrors of war!

[Bubblehead1980]

Ahhhh thats rough! sounds like a hell of a patrol.Running RSRD I assume?


Th

[NorthBeach]

That's just... just... just... so sad

*sigh*

[Armistead]

Well, you asked for that. Here you had a great patrol, maybe a lot of contacts still in your zone and you QUIT, expecting a save to work to take your wife shopping...Geesh, I just have no pity for you.

Seriously, not sure why your save didn't work. Were you playing RSRD? I take it you were in the...er Sulu Sea, whatever sea west of the San Bern.
That's where US planes usually attack in mass, around 100 of them, you mention down pilots, did you notice mass plane attacks. If playing RSRD the capital ships come in two long lines with the Yamato's in the rear. What do you mean by it was all alone? Did the group do something funny when you sunk the Kongo? Lucky the escorts didn't jump on you.

I have a hard time attacking the group there with my older PC, AMD3800, 2mgs ram and 9600gt.
Course I play maxed out settings with nHancer and high resolutions, but with all the contacts with planes attacking my PC really slows down in this battle, so I wait for the San Bern.

My guess is the TF was still in your contact zone, lots of planes and just too many contacts for the save. I've also heard not good to save when pilots are in the water and usually here there are a lot of them.

You shoud've just hit pause......anyway, man up next time and make her wait a few.

[tater]

SH4 has always been flakey. I only save with no enemies around, no TC.

[WernherVonTrapp]

RFB/RSRDC:
The failure to load message is, I'm sure, completely my fault. I was distracted by a flank attack by my first mate. I must have done something wrong during my save. Anyway, I have a lot of SS to post, just to prove I actually sunk the Y, while on the move, at sea.

This is by no means all of the pics but, a lot more than I usually post. I originally had 27 pictures posted but had to remove a lot of them due to the forum restriction of 20 pics.

My plot and U.S. planes approaching:


A closer view:


Opening their attack:


AA batteries on the Kongo come alive:


Kongo, Torpedo Impact!:


Going down hard:


Ping, ping!:


Yamato caught in the crosshairs:


Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom:


A parting shot for good measure:


Yamato dead in the water, ALL ALONE:


Time for the port side:


Last torpedo:


Internal secondaries finally reach the surface:


Yesssss! Lifeboats!


She's going down sir:


Read 'em and weep:


OK boys, let's get them downed fliers:


When I started my attack on the Kongo, I took some very risky shots at over 8,000yds away. However, the U.S. Navy air attack was in full swing and I thought it was "now or never" while the IJN was preoccupied with the dive bombers and torpedo planes. Apparently, it paid off. Really sad about the reload failure but, I had a usuable backup from a couple of days prior to the battle. I'll have to restart from there.

[Armistead]

I still think the problem was all the contacts. Even when the Y is dead in the water alone, you can see the TF far off. Even out of site it stays in the contact zone for about 25nms. I think just too much info.

[JoeCorrado]

Sad. Just sad.

[HMCS]

I hope your wife realizes what kind of sacrifices you've made for domestic happiness.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by HMCS

I hope your wife realizes what kind of sacrifices you've made for domestic happiness.

Ya know, I really feel that she has no clue as to the stresses of combat or running a submarine while at war. I mean, I have to keep the brass happy at Pearl, I have all these men under me, depending on me and then there's the enemy to worry about. I'm starting to feel pretty unappreciated around here.

[Diopos]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

...
I have all these men under me
...

And I think that is exactly the part that will REALLY upset your wife!



.

[Arael]

Maybe you should have paused the game and turned off the monitor until you came back.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Diopos

And I think that is exactly the part that will REALLY upset your wife!



.

Whew...Look Werner...We won't ask and you don't tell.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Diopos

And I think that is exactly the part that will REALLY upset your wife!



.

Originally Posted by Armistead

Whew...Look Werner...We won't ask and you don't tell.

[WernherVonTrapp]

OK, I'm starting to see some major differences between my previous engagement at Leyte and my current "do-over". For starters, the weather is much more calm. Last time, I was in a raging thunder storm for a couple of days prior, until the day before my encounter. This time, clear skies. The seas were rough right up until the moment I saved after the engagement and now the seas are dead-calm. The last time, I had TCed at over 2000 for (at least) a couple of days w/o a save. Normally, I save (at least) every 12 hours.
I think I simply had a fubar-ed game or something went haywire with the mechanics during my TC. Darn, I knew that Yamato seemed too easy. Oh well, round 2 coming up. Somehow, I think it'll be much harder this time around.